4A
STATE
THE UNIVERSITY BARRY KANSAN
TUESDAY MARCH 6 2007
Takin'it off for the team
Charlie Riedel/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former President Bill Clinton takes off his tie so it could be auctioned to benefit the Kansas Democratic Party after he spoke at the party's convention in Topeka on Friday. The tie was sold to Philip G. Ruffin for $26,000.
PET DANGER
Yorkshire terriers targeted by animal kidnappers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HUTCHINSON — Forget about robbing a bank, pillaging homes for jewelry or a late-night heist from the electronics store. Thieves in central Kansas are setting their sites on a vapping, lucrative alternative Yorkshire terrisons.
Yorkies, the trend pet of celebrities such as Tara Reid, Brittney Spears and Carmen Electra, can fetch between $600 and $2,500 each.
Sgt. Thad Pickard with the Hutchinson Police Department thinks that's one of the reasons he has been called to work at least two Yorkie-nappings in the past several months. He is also aware of another case where a missing Yorkie was found dead.
"I don't know what's driving it."
Pickard said. "They're a nice dog to have. They're small and they'e easy
to care for and they're an expensive breed"
The prized pups are missing from across the country. Families from Queens, N.Y., to Reno and Lake Tahoe, Nev., are searching for missing dogs.
A security video obtained by The Associated Press last week shows armed gunmen at a Los Angles-area apartment shoveling Yorkies into a plastic garbage bag. On Saturday, four of the five missing dogs were recovered when a man turned himself for the caper.
Shad Flint came home not long ago to find his Yorkie missing
He reported the crime to Hutchinson police and told detectives that Megan had been "chipped" — a small device that contains an electronic serial number was embedded under the dog's skin. That along with a neighbor's detailed description of the suspect helped Flirt get Megan back.
"I don't think we would have gotten the dog back without the chip," Pickard said.
Connie Marcotte, of Hutchinson,
nearly became another victim when
she saw a teenage girl trying to lure
her two Yorkies, Bubba and Rocky,
through a gate in the vard.
Marcotte ran outside and the girl fled, but there was no question what she was after. Marcotte found a dog carrier, leash and blanket she had left behind.
"I was furtious. I was beside myself." Marcotte said. "I called my husband and told him to come home. They're our babies; both our children are grown and gone.
"I just can't believe someone would go around taking other people's pets. If you want a dog, go to the pound."
Suspect in serial killings faces DNA testing, life prison term
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — DNA evidence may link Lorenzo Gilyard to a series of murdered women whose strangled, shoeless bodies were found in secluded spots around the city, a prosecutor said Monday as the former trash company supervisor's trial began.
Gilyard, described by neighbors as mild-mannered and friendly, Gilyard had been charged with 13 killings of women and girls between 1977 and 1993, but six of those charges were dropped Monday, as expected. Prosecutors, who can refile those charges later, said the seven remaining cases were the strongest and that suppressed evidence in the other six made them harder to try.
But if convicted on even one count of first-degree murder, Gilyard's only possible sentence would be life in prison without parole. Prosecutors agreed in January not to seek the death penalty as long as Gilyard's attorneys agreed to a trial before a judge without a jury. His attorneys also agreed to give up nearly all of their client's appeal rights.
In opening arguments Monday,prosecutor Jim Kanatzar
said crime lab experts would show Gilyard had sex with the victims near the time of their deaths.
"All the victims have several things in common: All were found dead during the same one-and-a-half year period, all were left in secluded or obstructed locations, all were strangled, all showed signs that they were involved in a struggle, all were missing their shoes and all but one showed distinct signs of sexual intercourse," he said.
Gilyard's attorney, Tom lacquinet, noted police at first suspected other men and pointed out that most of the victims had a history of taking rides with strange men as part of their work as prostitutes.
"My client stands before you facing these accusations telling you the same thing he told police more than three years ago. He did not kill anyone," faqiocon said.
Gilyard, 56, was jailed in 2004 in connection with the strangulation of 12 of the victims. Authorities added the 13th murder charge last year — a 26-year-old woman found dead on a street in 1989 with a paper towel in her mouth and strangulation marks around her neck. That charge was dropped Monday.
Prosecutors began their case with the murder of Catherine M. Barry, 34, the only victim who was not known to be a prostitute. She
was found in 1986 at an abandoned public works building, nude and covered in leaves and debris, with a nylon stocking around her neck. The prosecution called Carl Glazier, a retired Kansas City police officer who investigated Barry's death, to testify.
In telephone conversations with his relatives, Gilyard has consistently contended he is innocent and eager to go to trial.
"I know I couldn't get convicted of something I didn't do," Gilyard told a relative in one call, among more than 200 minutes of recordings The Kansas City Star recently obtained through a Missouri Sunshine Law request.
Gilyard rarely discussed details of his case, but in one conversation, he talked about the DNA evidence that prosecutors say linked him to the victims. He told a friend his trial would come down to "their scientists against my scientists."
Gilyard had a long history of scrapes with the law and served time for crimes including child molestation. State probation records show that from January 1969 to June 1974, he was a suspect in five rape cases, though he was never convicted.
But Gilyard had been largely off the police radar in the years before his April 2004 arrest.
WILDLIFE
KC Zoo to help endangered amphibians
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo — The Kansas City Zoo is offering to become a haven for frogs and salamanders that are coming perilously close to extinction.
Kansas City is one of several zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens throughout the country that will be part of a worldwide "Amphibian Ark" which seeks to establish captive breeding programs to help endangered amphibians.
"What's depressing about amphibians is that this is a worldwide trend," said Jeff Briggle,
Experts say amphibians are good indicators of ecological health because they are sensitive to chemicals introduced to the environment and changes in wetlands, woodlands and prairies.
a herpetologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "One third of them are declining."
"We're planning to help, although we're just now getting our frogs in a row," said Liz Harmon, general curator for the Kansas City Zoo.
The zoo plans to work with two species, including crawfish frogs, a local species listed in Missouri as vulnerable to becoming threatened or endangered.
Crawfish frogs are cream colored with dark spots and grow up to 4 inches long. They live off crayfish or mice burrows in native prairies, and the destruction of their habitat is one reason the species is threatened.
"The hope is that this would be a short term holding place until there's a place for these amphibians to go into the wild," Harmon said.
Green toads of the arid western plains are among the species native to Kansas that could be helped by zoo breeding programs, said Joseph T. Collins, herpetologist at the University of Kansas.
KANSANCLASSIFIEDS
PHONE 785.864.4358
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STUFF
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Asking $275 firm. Also have 200 moped $500, (913)208-3112
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AUTO
hawkchalk
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2000 Suzuki GZ 250 Motorcycle
Less than 500 miles. Great beginner or for
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Walk-up Train
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LOST & FOUND
lpd found if you can identify the type (regular, mini, nano, or shuffle) and the name engraved in it, you can have it. jeesma@ku.edu.ku.edu
121219
I lost my cell phone in Budig 120. Tues.
Feb 27. It is a Nokia 6215i. Phone carrier
is Verizon Wireless.
Lost iPod. Black 2 GB nano. Cash reward if returned.
iPod recorder. cam
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TICKETS
I need a Taking Back Sunday ticket for
at 71 at the Uptown 913-628-0048 on mail
day.
March 24th ticket for Brand new for sale.
Sweetfeet86@yahoo.com
hawkchalk.com/1312